Setup

By default, both login name and password are "linaro". I suggest you to change password for "linaro" and add your own user with administrative privileges. Do it from command line or install GUI user manager:

sudo apt-get install gnome-system-tools

Log on as your own user and install packages required to access the server remotely: secure shell server and remote desktop server.

Restart Cubieboard and try to connect from another computer with Remmina by VNC protocol.

If all works OK, you may stop Cubieboard server and detach keyboard, mouse and HDMI cables.

Now it's time to plug HDD to SATA port. Check your USB charger power parameters. Adapter should have 5V and at least 1A to be able to run HDD.

Note that HDD of 3.5" form-factor is not supported because of dual power: both +5V and +12V required. So it's not possible to power 3.5" HDD directly with Cubieboard. You need an external power supply. A 3.5" HDD external case may be a solution.

We will use 2.5" HDD that requires about 700 mA usually. So 1A is a minimum for charger and you should better buy 1,2-1.5A adapter.

After plugging SATA HDD drive and starting Cubieboard you should see sda device.

Other software

I remember our file-server that supported a workgroup of 150 employees in 1995: one CPU i486 40 MHz, 8 MB of RAM, HDD of 500 MB... My Cubieboard 2013 has about 50-200 times as much performance of CPU and RAM/HDD size as that server. So feel free to install software you need. Here is my short-list:

Samba file server to share my file store at home network

aMule P2P server to share some files with another users. The great advantage of eMule/Kademlia network (about one million of peers) is a lifetime of some rare files. Today I can still download files that I downloaded in 2003!